Tools

Carolina Chocolate Drops

When: Sun., Oct. 17, 7:30 p.m. 2010Price: $5 (plus fair admission)

In the beginning, Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson of the Carolina Chocolate Drops refined their estimable string-band chops playing alongside nonagenarian fiddler Joe Thompson of Mebane (although, granted, he was merely an octogenarian when they started). And the Chocolate Drops excel at the tunes that they, using Thompson's term, caught, putting young faces on the ancient soul of songs like "Georgie Buck." But the trio uses that traditional base as a launching pad, taking off on flights of Celtic hip-hop, reimagined modern R&B and whatever else might strike their apparently boundaryless fancy, including a runaway-train take on Johnny and June's "Jackson." During the N.C. State Fair. —Rick Cornell